Solving Mobile Bounce Rates

A Big problem facing online seller AbsorbentsOnline.com was mobile client retention.
Their bounce rate on mobile was too high...around 85%.
This had to be solved! And Quick! Now buyers can access the full site in the field, right in the palm of their hand. Mobile orders are skyrocketing while mobile bounce rate is disappearing.

Mobile Web Development

Have you seen the latest growth trends in mobile? About 40% of search is coming from Mobile. Samsung selling a Million smartphones per day! You Need to Take Action Now!

Have you heard the latest stats? Google is now reporting that over 30% of search volume is logged on the mobile platform.

That means that visitors to your website have a 1 in 3 chance of being a smartphone or a tablet user.

So why do so many local websites still look so horrible on mobile devices? What’s with all the zooming and panning?

They are not just searching either. In a recent uSamp study it was found that 45% of the men surveyed have used their mobile phone to purchase goods. 33% of women polled purchased goods on their mobile.

What makes the best mobile websites?

Designs that are based on fluid grid technologies. WordPress has some excellent themes available and so do the other content management solutions. HTML sites coded with Twitter’s Bootstrap also are excellent.

Designs that look good on tablets and smart phones use the grid system in general and are referred to as “responsive websites”.

Any website can be easily tested for responsiveness right on a laptop or desktop computer. Just load the website and, using the mouse, resize the browser window gradually. Does it size down smoothly? If you immediately see the side of the page cut off and not reposition you have issues.

Users will only tolerate websites that are not responsive for a very short time. If they can’t read your site…they are going to move on!

Mobile…Live From the Couch!

One final note. Mobile does not necessarily mean that your client is out and about. Research indicates that we are using our phones and tablets in the home…a lot. We just are not replacing those aging desktops with another desktop. It’s not uncommon for a household to have a smartphone and a tablet for just about everyone in the house.

So, can you afford to turn away 30% of your business? I’ll bet you can’t.

Give me a call and we’ll take a look at your current site and see what can be done to include all your customers’ needs.

(By the way…this post was written and posted from my Samsung smart phone)

Have you considered offering the option of working remote to your employees?

It can save money on infrastructure, power and leased space, that’s for sure. But how will you manage them? How can you be assured that you are getting your money’s worth and that they are being productive?

Spying On Your Remote Team?

Some companies take this to the extreme. They’ll run Odesk and spyware on employees machines so that they can monitor every task and web page visited during the day. That sounds too much like micro managing to me. You are going to spend more time managing this remote work force than you save going to this model.

There needs to be a great deal of trust in the first place. If an employee is productive and produces his/her work in the office with minimal supervision, then they are already a good candidate for remote working. Employees with lazy work habits will make lousy remote workers.

Managing Your Remote Team

There are a number of great tools out there that will help manage your work force and help organize the tasks being worked on. Several of which I have direct, long term experience with as both a remote worker and as a manager.

Here are some of my favorites and I’ll be following this post with more detailed posts on each of them.

Zoho CRM – This is a very reasonably priced Customer Relationship Management program that is customizable and robust. Not only can you manage client info, leads, opportunities and orders but you can invoice too. I use it to manage and move my sales opportunities through the sales funnel and manage my pipeline. Zoho CRM also has robust Task management built in.

Infusionsoft – Another great CRM program that is really the king of CRM and marketing email. Quite a bit more costly and more specialized than Zoho. Task management is not built in but, there is a sizeable app market for Infusionsoft add-ons.

Basecamp - You can not beat Basecamp when you are working with larger teams and more complicated projects. This is the most complete project management team site I have ever worked with.

Teambox - This solution is just right for smaller teams and working with shorter term projects. With a nice clean web interface and easy to understand layout, you’ll be up and running in no time.

Experienced Solutions Design and Deployment of Remote Worker Tools

The tools mentioned here are not identical and the pricing varies from free to several hundred dollars per month. Here are a couple of scenarios that I think will help.

#1 – Small to medium size local service business with less than a dozen remote workers in both sales and customer service functions. Zoho CRM. This will allow you to manage the sales process from lead to opportunity to sales pipelines. Reporting is robust and customizable. Task management is clean and organized. Price will be around $20 per full featured employee.

#2 – Medium to larger company with office customer service workers managing a field sales team: Infusionsoft. The ability to manage large customer databases and manage the sales process is key to your success. The more contacts you have the more automation you’ll want to implement. Infusionsoft is ideal here.

#3 – Ecommerce or information type website manager with a coup.e of remote development and programming team members…Teambox will rock this scenario.

If you’d like to discuss your scenario in more detail and need help planning and deploying remote team members, give me a shout. I can help in all phases from sounding board role to rolling out a solution to customizing the solution for your needs.

Come back and visit me soon for more information on working remote and managing remote teams.

Save on Siding Saves You Money on Screenrooms

Contact Jeff over at Save on Siding to get an estimate on screening in your patio. He can screen in spaces of all sizes from small back patio porches to large restaurant dining patios. Residential or commercial.

Visit www.saveonsiding.com or call 832-900-7021 for details and to schedule a measurement and quote. It’s free to find out what is possible!

Hey Houston, do you have a problem…with mosquitos? Those nasty biting little insects that carry West Nile disease can get everywhere in your house. They can bite you when you are cooking out or relaxing on your patio.

Well, there is a solution. Add a screenroom Houston! This is one of the most affordable ways to beating the the little pests at their game. Block them out! Call Save On Siding for a free estimate on what it would cost to get your own super strong, aircraft structural quality extruded aluminum framed screen room. We have them in all shapes and sizes…in fact, each one is custom and unique.

When the snow melts on your Kansas City area rooftop, it may be time to get a qualified Roofer up there to check for damage. Snow and Ice is heavy and can compress your shingles and flashing causing it to get out of alignment. Gaps can begin to show and water can seep into the attic.

MB Roofing Kansas City will provide a free inspection and quote for any work that needs to be performed.

Beat the Mosquito Season by adding a beautiful screen room to your Houston patio! Aircraft grade construction aluminum with high quality, baked on enamel finish in several colors. Keep the bugs at bay this year. Visit Save on Siding or call for your own Houston Screenroom

One of the danger areas to watch for siding rot is along the rake of your roof where it comes up next to the siding. Leaves will collect along that area of flashing and prevent water from draining. Anytime that happens your masonite or wood siding will be continuously be exposed to standing water or soaking wet leaves.

Keep that area clear of leaves to prevent rot like seen in the picture. Call or visit Save On Siding in Houston for free advice and an estimate to repair or replace rotten siding.

When a potential client visits your website, you have but mere seconds to grab attention. People are all too eager to hit the back button these days. They don’t hate you. They just hate your tactics.

Sites that make a reader think are sites that turn readers away. Sites that don’t make a connection immediately, do not get read. Part of the formula relies on layout, platform and UX (user experience). The other part of the formula is copywriting and the use of compelling headlines.

I’ll get to the style and UX elements in a later post. Here, we will discuss headlines.

What is a Headline?

Headlines are the Big Bolded Text…(okay, duh!). Headlines are really about more than just size though, even though size does matter. First off there is more than one type of headline and there is a specific way that they should be used and a specific number of times on a page they should be used.

Headlines introduce the reader to the main idea that will unfold in the copy below. Headlines need to be short and sweet and they MUST appeal to the readers emotions. They must trigger an emotion in order to be interesting enough for the reader to continue. Not only must they get the readers attention but, they also tell Google (and other search engines) about your page. What the page is about and what is/are the main important ideas and keywords.

Headlines area numbered. In HTML code they are H1, H2, H3, H4, H5…etc. The numbers depict two things:

H1: Most important Topic, Largest and boldest typeface. (actual size, color, etc. is set in the style sheet)

H2: Second most important idea and next size down in font size

H3: Sub-topic/Sub-headline and supporting ideas. Again a little smaller in size.

When the search engine spiders visit your page, they want to catalog your page so that it can be found when searchers (your customers) perform a search query. They are expecting to find just one H1 headline, one H2 and one H3 headline. Do not overdo the rules for headlines. Try it…Use all H1 headlines on your page and your page will not rank. It will be perceived as spammy.

Please Explain When to Use Each Headline Type, Bob!

Okay, since you asked nicely.

There really must be one big hairy reason for the reader to read the page…that’s your H1 headline.

There should also be a second most important reason to read and a third most important idea that tells the reader…”Don’t stop here, Keep Reading Please”. Those are your H2 and your H3 headlines.

If you want to separate sections like “Services” from “Products” or better yet “Benefits” from “Features”, use the H4 and smaller headlines. You can use as many of those as necessary to complete your page idea and copy.

So, What Makes a Good Headline?

For your main H1 headline, since it is most likely going to be the first text in the body of your page, needs to grab the readers attention. It needs to connect with an emotion (fear, anxiety, sorrow, happiness, fulfillment, etc.) so that the reader will know that you are going to answer his most important question: “Why should I care about this?”

If you can successfully answer that question, you’ll have a reader.

How About Some Examples…

One of the biggest mistakes I see companies make on their headlines and in their copy is that they talk about themselves too much. It’s all about me, me, me! You know what? Readers don’t care about you. They care about themselves. Remember, “what’s in it for me…”WIIFM”. I see this a lot in the services industry:

The Best Roofer in Minnesota!

Readers Reaction: “Okay, thanks for that but, whats in it for me? I see that you have a big ego, who cares…I’ll just hit the back button now”.

Instead, I’d lead off with:

Three Critical Mistakes Rookie Roofers Make

Free essential tips from professional roofers in Minnesota

Readers Reaction: “Wow, you mean that if I hire a rookie he might do more damage than good? What are they doing wrong?”

See how I made a difference here? First of all, homeowners are pretty darned attached to their homes and to their family. If you can raise some concern about the contractors they might have hired, you’ve touched a nerve and activated an emotion. Then I used the Headline/Sub-Headline method to further explain how I was going to save them.

Okay, Once I Have a Readers Attention, Then What?

Next comes the copy. Hire a good copywriter. Don’t just spout off this and that feature, blah, blah, blah. Continue your story of how the informed homeowners can avoid making the mistakes others make. The copy should be a story, by the way. People love reading stories. They don’t like reading spec sheets and instructions. Tell a story and you’ve got them.

I’m convinced, My Website Needs Help Now…

If you need help with your headlines and copy, I’m here to help. I’d be happy to analyze your pages for you and make simple recommendations and suggestions for free. I’m also here to help you transform your web copy into a content strategy with some content management and copywriting that will bring customers in and make them act.

Do You Know What Your Customers are doing on the Internet?

If you still have trouble figuring out where to spend you marketing time and money on the internet, just look to this graphic.

Concentrate your efforts in your content development plan on these key metrics. What? You don’t have a plan? Here is some advice.

Let’s translate some of the data in the graphic:

YouTube: In one minute, 30 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube and 1.3 million views have occured. That is staggering information. If you are not creating (or having someone create) videos for you, you have to move that to the top of your content development plan.

Google: Over 2 million searches in one minute! That is an incredible amount of searching! How many pages do you have on your site? Each page is at least one more chance to be somewhere in that 2 million searches.

Facebook: 277 Thousand logins and 6 Million views. You have to have a strategy to get fans and create posts on an ongoing basis. You need check-ins if you are a brick and mortar location.

Twitter and Flickr: 20 Million photo views a minute on Flickr! 100 Thousand new tweets! Your plan has to include giving Twitter and Flickr some love too. Post, post, post, Tweet, tweet, tweet…repeat!

Your 2013 Content Strategy?

As a small business owner, what are you doing in each of the topics above? Have you developed a plan to implement a strategy for 2013?

Basic Content Strategy Suggestion: Each week, you should have at least one new post on your web page, minimum. For Facebook, try to keep fresh content up there daily or at least several times per week. Tweet everything you do for your website and your Facebook posts. Take photos daily and upload them to Flickr. Google (and Bing/Yahoo) like fresh content. If you want to be found, you need to participate.

If you have some ideas or questions you’d like to bounce off of me, please comment here or post your question on my Facebook page. If you like this post, consider writing a review for it.

A little NAP never hurt anybody!

I’m not talking about taking a mid day power nap…although I could always use one. I am talking about the increasing importance of consistency of your business name, address and phone number on the internet.

By consistency I mean that every page on your website, Facebook and on every online directory (like Yelp, Google Local, Merchant Circle, etc.) absolutely must be identical across the board.

Your business name needs to be identical every time you use it. Not only for the obvious brand recognition reasons but, there is a lot of cross referencing of listings and of online reviews going on.

I have met several business owners lately that actually had three Google local listings. The name was abbreviated in one listing, another had Co. after it and still another had Inc. following the name. All should have been LLC, by the way.

In his instance, he had amassed 40 something reviews but they were spread out over three listings. Potential clients would see only 7 or 8 reviews about half the time because the duplicate listings were coming up in search often enough. Imagine the additional clients and additional reviews he could get if one listing with all four dozen reviews came up every time!

Duplicate listings should be found, fixed and consolidated.

Listing errors are a real problem. I have seen wrong phone numbers. Old addresses. Old business names. You name it. Potential clients are going elsewhere!

When all your listings are identical your brand is stronger and your credibility to clients and to the search engines is improved. Your search result will come up more often.

If your Kingwood / Humble area business could use a NAP makeover (Name/Address/Phone), let’s talk. I can help.

Easy way to make Super Cool web buttons!

Okay, so you spent all that time on your new ebook. Great job!

Now, you want to give it away or sell it and you’re creating a post on your WordPress site to promote it. You write a very compelling copy that draws your readers in and has them thinking “this guy is the expert”!

One way to have a button is to go create (or swipe) an image file like a jpg or a png. Sure, that looks much better. But, what if you could create really cool buttons, really quickly? Now you’re talking!

How about this: Request e-Book Now, doesn’t that look a million times better?

The cool thing is it is down all with CSS. No image, no Javascript. Here’s a peek at the code:

Now, if you are good at CSS, that code will make a lot of sense. I am pretty good at it but, I still don’t want to code it all myself.

You can see that there are plenty of opportunities in the code to tweak it to match your own website color scheme.

All you have to do is:

Paste that code into your style sheet and save it.

Create a regular a href link and add the class=”ebookbutton” in the link.

Finish the link off with your own text and the closing /a tag.

Send Code

That’s it. Would you like that code sent to you? I’ll email it to you for free.

All you have to do is provide me your email and it will be instantly sent to you. And, don’t worry…I will not spam you with other messages. I’ll just send you the code automatically. One thing, in exchange, would you provide some kudos for giving you such awesome code? Thank you in advance!

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Robert is a great guy to work with. He has a work ethic level that is hard to find these days.
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I worked with Bob at Vanstar/Inacom for a number of years. I found him to be a resourceful, helpful and intelligent person with strong work ethics. He always took the extra mile to get the job done and help others with utmost sincerity. Not only I found him extremely professional and well-versed, I also found him to be a great friend outside the professional environment. He is one individual [...]

Bob brought enthusiasm, guidance and a sense of professionalism to our team as a supervisor and trainer. He was always approachable and had a pleasant demeanor and a sense of humor no matter how stressful the situation was; Lord knows that the Vanstar/Inacom Central Sales team had its share of stress during those days, but Bob as the supervisor and trainer made the environment pleasant and [...]

Bob was a great asset to our team and was successful in establishing and growing relationships with key business partners. Bob was able to quickly identify key product features and functions and position these as strategic value add solutions. Bob possess a strong team player attitude and is always available to do what it takes to win and get the job done.

Bob and I worked together as Inside Sales Account Managers supporting the field team based in New Jersey. We were in a frantic call center environment where balancing efficiency and customer service was the key to success. Bob always had a knack for finding the most efficient way to be productive while keeping the customers happy. We later become friendly competitors when we each [...]